Southern Moderate African American Issues

Posts Tagged ‘Black Lives Matter’

Scriptures and southern sayings do more for you than the government. The roles of the federal and state governments need to be reexamined during this non-election year. My idea is that the best life doesn’t depend on what governmental officials do and we need to hear some of them say that.

Free Milk and a Cow: The Georgia Satellites use this saying as the central theme in their hit “Keep Your Hands to Yourself.” Beyoncé sang something similar in “Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It.)” Grandmothers once taught girls to hold “the cookie” hostage until a young gentleman (literally a gentle man) presented a long term, whole life package that included caring for future children. America will always provide a little temporary food assistance to needy families but the government is not now nor should it be your baby’s daddy for 18 years.

2 Thessalonians 3:10-15: Paul broke that thing down in this letter. “For even when we were with you, this we commanded you, that if any would not work, neither should he eat. For we hear that there are some which walk among you disorderly, working not at all but are busybodies. Now them that are such we command and exhort by our Lord Jesus Christ, that with quietness they work and eat their own bread. But ye, brethren, be not weary in well doing.

And if any man obeys not our word by this epistle, note that man and have no company with him, that he may be ashamed. Yet, could him not as an enemy, but admonish him as a brother.

Society wants to help the needy but how do we have young parents who are too cool to flip burgers and toss watermelons. But, you love your kids so much. Hogwash. We grew up with parents who had a job and a side job. Paul’s “Disorderly” would be current thugs but Democrats shouldn’t consider them as the enemy…just brothers who never learned the right way.

Give a man a fish and he eats for a day, teach him to fish and he eats for a lifetime: You help those who help themselves. Unfortunately, we have a large number of half-raised people in this country. Georgia Governor Nathan Deal was surprised to discover the amount of money our state spends on corrections. I love calling the prison system “corrections” because that is what it is. If a fraction of that money could have been spent on better college, technical schools and K-12, we would need less funding for corrections and have fewer crime victims.

Know who you are and whose you are: Back in the day, our community had pride. You represented yourself, your family, your community, your race and your church in everything you did. In his first book, Secretary Colin Powell wrote that we need to bring the concept of shame back in America and I agree. If your kids are hungry but you won’t pick tomatoes as a job, you should be ashamed. If that same person plays Xbox all day, he should be ashamed. If you sell dope on the corner which poisons the community and creates a violent illegal commerce, shame on you.

Look, the American way should be an equal opportunity at success for everyone..a fair shot. If you blow off your shot with your actions (playing in school, disrespecting your family, being lazy), you are messing up an opportunity slaves and sharecroppers would have died to have.

They did die to have the right to vote but too many people in our community blow off voting. Wait a second..the same young people getting temporary assistance don’t vote. Amazing. The Trump Presidency is reality and his plan is simple: Reduce government assistance to needy people, they can do the work currently done by illegals…the work Americans won’t do.

Black Lives Matter: Okay, I always thought this movement should have been Black Lives Matter Also but what do I know. It’s not saying that other lives don’t matter..they do. As a southern moderate, I find the progressive movement to be a little aggressive with the whole “what government did and what corporate America did” thing. But, I was hyped to see a You Tube video say Black Lives should matter to Black people.

Yes, sir..there it is right there. Jesus said one of the two greatest commandments was love your neighbor as yourself but you don’t love yourself. If we took care of our community, the government would be secondary…”defend the borders and deliver the mail” is one more southern saying.

A million years ago, I was a congressional staffer and the 1994 Crime Bill was my baby. Since I wasn’t a high-profile staffer like the cats on House of Cards, I generally did the less sexy issues involving national parks, crops and naming post offices. But I was knee deep in that crime bill drama.

That legislation was driven by years of high crime rates and drug addiction. In 1986, Maryland basketball star Len Bias died shortly after signing with the Boston Celtics and House Speaker Tipp O’Neill demanded that legislation addressing crack be ready after the August recess. I was in college then but word is that a staffer from legislative counsel sat at his dining room table and just made stuff up—no hearings, no research. That is the reason we had that crazy difference in sentencing for crack crimes and powder cocaine crimes.

Anyway, our Crime Bill was well researched and well fought over. While Black Lives Matter is tripping on Bill Clinton, they need to see how many members of the Congressional Black Caucus crafted and voted for the Crime Bill. And for the record, I appreciate the spirit of activism of the Black Lives Matter movement but I generally don’t care for people jumping up inside anyone’s event…there is a time and place.

The 1994 Crime Bill was a balance of prisons, prevention and policing. I want to say that the community policing provisions could be used by local police today. At times, I feel that the local police seem like overseers in my community—the average citizen isn’t the enemy and the average citizen hates crime more than anyone. Some police have been hardened by the constant battle with the worst 10% of the community but that is no reason to treat the community a certain way.

With community policing, the officers develop personal relationships with folks on their beats. They get out of the cars and pull off those mirrored Cool Hand Luke sunglasses to connect with citizens…Mrs. Jones didn’t turn on her porch light at dark, check on her. I will always have a glass of Crystal Light Peach Mango Tea for any officer literally walking a beat.

Officers, deep inside, don’t want to see youth in jail but they must do their jobs and as Beretta said, “don’t do the crime if you can’t do the time.” It’s the community’s job to offer options and opportunities to young people so they don’t go down that wrong path.

Finally, I can’t remember if the assault weapons ban was in the final Crime Law but I told my boss that people should have a certain amount of fire power to defend their families and to hunt. However, military style weapons for home defense in subdivisions is too much; good news is you got the bad guy…bad news is you blasted Mrs. Jones’ porch light across the street.

On the other hand, Worth County, Georgia, is half the size of Rhode Island and if the bad guys are at your rural house on one end of the county, your family could be cold by the time the deputies arrive. In that case, you need to let that clip sing. Biggie Smalls said, “Call the coroner..there’s gonna be a lot of slow singing and flower bringing if my burglar alarm starts ringing.”

So, Hillary Clinton isn’t responsible for everything President Bill Clinton and the Dems did back in the day.

Secretary Hillary Clinton recommended that Black Lives Matter activists get a more formal plan that involves solutions—good for her; good for them. One of the biggest question marks about Clinton’s path into the Oval Office is can she get most of the Obama voters back to the polls in November of 2016. If she does, she would be president because she will (in my opinion) receive a surprising percentage of suburban women who voted for McCain and Romney.

Some say bloggers have delusions of grandeur. Does Obamacare cover the treatment of this condition? Well, I want to make a few points that will hopefully (unlikely) reach important ears through the six degrees of separation.

Black Lives Matter: While I can appreciate civil disobedience to a certain degree, this bum-rushing the stage stuff would be dangerous in the gun-loving South. Also, they shouldn’t try that at a Minister Farrakhan speech because there would be more punches than at the last Ronda Rousey fight.

Because Black southerners are more moderate, Black Lives Matter might be surprised that many Blacks here think that equal outrage should be focused on Black on Black violence.

Judge Willie Lockette: Yes, he is grandfather of the football player from the Super Bowl but Lockette’s wisdom in Albany, Georgia, could save more people nationally than the number of fans in that stadium. I took Administrative Law class from him in grad school so I know his logic is like Thurgood Marshall meets Andy Griffin. While speaking to a fraternity’s youth group, Lockette broke down his recommendations for encounters with the police.

Lockette, who had a meeting with Simmons and some youth earlier this week to discuss the topic, talked about how young blacks should survive an encounter with police officers.

“We came up with a list of four Do’s and four Don’ts,” Lockette said. Things not to do include don’t react, don’t reach, don’t run and don’t resist. Running is a major no-no, Lockett said.

Lockette’s list of things to do:

“Do respect the police even if you think they are wrong; do use restraint; do record everything. You have a cell phone, use it; and do report any problems you might have.

“And always remember, you could be right, but you could also be dead right.”

Candidate Clinton: Winning elections involves three things: getting people to vote for you, getting people to vote against the other person/people and who stays home. Candidates have big egos and want people to vote for them because they are wonderful. But, consider the people who won office because people were voting against the other person (it’s like rebound kisses.) For example, Sonny Perdue became governor of Georgia because people were voting against then Governor Roy Barnes’ changes to the state flag and some changes to the educational system. Hell, some voters couldn’t pick Perdue out of a line up but he rode that wave.

The “stay home” factor is a two-edged sword for Clinton. The bad edge involves infrequent voters who voted for Obama because he was such a wonderful person (like Bill Clinton and some think Ronald Reagan) but who would blow off the next election.

The good edge for Clinton will be the fact many conservative voters are so particular about their issues and candidates than the might blow off the GOP nominee because that candidate knocked out their guy/gal or isn’t hardcore enough on a few issues. From the grave, Reagan is saying take the most electable conservative and from Atlanta reasonable Republican Charlie Harper of Peach Pundit is telling his fellow conservatives that Donald Trump will make Hillary Clinton president for sure.

Solutions: While Black Lives Matters is grabbing mics like Run/DMC, the southern effort to help our communities starts with listening to Judge Lockette’s wisdom about being right and dead.

Secondly, since Clinton called for solutions and an organized plan, someone from her camp (and every political camp) should spend an hour reading Project Logic Ga’s Best Interests Initiative. BII isn’t actually about what elected leaders can do for the people, it’s about the people functioning smarter after acknowledging that we must do for self first and that there isn’t always a governmental solution to every personal and community problem. Yeah, I must have some serious delusions of grandeur jumping off because I think those nine blog posts could/should heal the divide in this country.

To Democrats, BII is a starting point to secure moderates and maybe restart the conservative section of the Blue Team. To Republicans, BII is how you’ll should approach others with conservatism but don’t.